How to Come up with Blog Posts Your Client’s Audience Will Love

We have all been there: You put your heart and soul, not to mention your time, into creating some brilliant blog posts as a part of a project for your new client. You edit them until they are just right, sprinkling in some quality media content for good measure, only to receive a lackluster response from their audience.

The first few times this happened, I couldn’t really figure out why. The ideas were great and I put so much effort into developing them, with nothing to show for in the end

Eventually I lost the client. Why didn’t anyone want to read it?

The thing is, what may have been interesting to me might not have appealed to my client’s blog audience very much. And that is one of the crucial problems of every blogger and an essential component of every blog’s success.

Not only should you be able to create high-quality content and promote the hell out of it, but you must figure out what your client’s audience might like. If you can’t do that, all that hard work will not pay off.

I have put together a list of 5 things you can do to remedy that issue. Keep on reading for more details.

1. Analysis of the Best Performing Posts

Something I have figured out about writing successful blog posts is the fact that you may have had the right recipe all along. If you’ve already created at least one blog post that has been a hit with your client’s audience, you obviously have what it takes.

The tricky part is analyzing why that particular post was so successful…

Fortunately for us, there are some wonderful tools in the shape of BuzzSumo and Ahrefs Content Explorer that can help you spot posts which performed the best among your client’s target audience.

Posts on Listiller.com that generated the highest numbers of shares over the past year, according to BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is especially useful in finding the most popular blog topics, as it calculates the total number of shares your posts have received across all your client’s social media platforms.

You may also see results over a certain time period or consider a particular type of content, language, or geographic location, which is a very good indicator of audience engagement.

2. Insights from Your Competition

Another clever approach would be to check out what your competitors are doing – especially those in the same niche as your client – and therefore targeting the same kind of audience as them. Again, I recommend using BuzzSumo in order to peek over the fence and identify their most successful posts, not just your own.

This works especially well if they are doing better than your client’s blog at the moment, because you can always use their work as the basis for your next hit post.

Find ways to improve upon their work and identify certain gaps and topics they haven’t covered yet, but which might be pain points for your client’s audience.

This audience is practically just waiting for a solution to be written and published by someone. Make sure that someone is you.

3. Staying in the Loop

Joseph Medina, a freelance writer and a blogger at BestDissertation.com writing service, shares his experience about the importance of keeping track of what’s going on in the blogosphere:

“Sometimes, it’s simply not about the quality of your ideas or solving a particular problem your client’s audience has, but about what’s currently hot in the industry. People love stuff that is trending, and there is no going around that. So, instead of trying to beat everyone all the time, simply join them, and be the best at it, while at the same time keeping your client’s audience interested and satisfied. It’s simple: when you go to a concert of your favorite band, you expect them to play the hits, right? Well, sometimes you have to do that in blogging”.

Of course, it’s all about finding the right keywords and topics that are trending, and again, this is where BuzzSumo and Ahrefs Content Explorer come to the rescue. They can help you determine which keywords have been trending over a particular time period, including the past 24 hours, once week, month, or a year.

Ahrefs Content Explorer in action. Showing the most shared posts on blogging over the past month.

4. Getting Input from Your Client’s Audience

It’s also essential to nurture a good relationship with your client’s audience, and that includes responding to user comments and appreciating their feedback.

If you are having trouble identifying their needs, simply ask them what their problems are and write about the solutions in your next post. You can also increase their engagement by putting a survey or a quiz on your website or social media account, and gather valuable insight that way.

After that, you can rest assured that your efforts won’t go unnoticed by your client’s readers. Meet their needs and they will respond accordingly.

In addition, interactive elements such as the comment sections, quizzes, or surveys will keep your readers on your client’s website for longer, making them more likely to come across some of your less popular posts in the process.

5. Listening to What Influencers Have to Say

One of the most effective marketing strategies these days is influencer marketing, and for good reason, as they are able to identify the needs of the audience and properly address them at the same time.

Getting on their good side can launch your client’s blog post well into the stratosphere, especially if you can get them to leave a comment or a quote inside your article.

But before you can do that, you need to narrow down the list of influencers that might help your client’s cause. For that I would recommend using tools like Followerwonk and Buzzstream Discovery tool, which can identify all the major players based on keywords which reflect your client’s niche and areas of interest.

BuzzStream Discovery Tool lets you spot and contact influencers in any field

Back to You

These five essential elements are what you need to consistently come up with engaging blog post ideas that are relevant, engaging, and appealing to your client’s audience.

I invite you to test them out in the field and experience their many benefits. Also, please share your insights and your most successful strategies with us in the comments section below.

Steven Wesley

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No Comments

Elvis Michael
July 17, 2017 @
1:00 pm

This is pure gold, Steven (oh, and thanks for highlighting some of this website’s most popular items!)

I have always said there’s nothing wrong with following your competitors – and even adapting something of theirs. You said it best: “Find ways to improve upon their work and identify certain gaps and topics they haven’t covered yet…”

These are some great tips. It’s definitely harder to understand your client’s target audience than your own. I do find looking the competition for idea topics is helpful. but, then the challenge is how to write about new info.
Thanks for the tips as this is something most of us can improve on.

Elvis Michael
July 24, 2017 @
10:49 am

Thanks Rich.
Other places to get started (with a basic idea, at least) is to look into “blog post idea generator” on Google. As you may already know, these are engines that give you some great blog topics based on your chosen keyword. After that, it becomes easier to research the “meat” or the content of the chosen topic.

Thanks for all of the great ideas in this post!! I’m looking forward to putting them into action as soon as possible. Too often do I spend an inordinate amount of time putting together a post just for it to reach nobody.

Thanks for sharing this with us. I also have a similar post on this. This is what’s trending now. Bloggers really need to know how to master getting blog post ideas.

What I usually do is to combine the result of my audience request on Facebook with what my competitions are doing.

It’s working gradually.

Emenike

Elvis Michael
July 24, 2017 @
10:39 am

This is an overlooked idea, so im glad you brought it up. Speaking of user requests, people in the comments section sometimes ask important questions; it’s wise to visit highly popular blogs and scan what the average user is curious about, then address their concerns with a blog post 🙂